A sense amplifier is part of read circuitry on an integrated circuit (IC), and is used when data is read from memory on the integrated circuit. During a memory access cycle, a differential signal is generated by a memory cell. For example, the differential signal is represented by a difference in voltage between data lines. The sense amplifier senses and amplifies the differential signal to recognizable logic levels so the data can be interpreted properly by logic outside the memory.
Sense amplifiers can be error-prone, whereby the differential signal is not always sensed. For example, the difference in voltages between data lines can be extremely minuscule to the point where the sense amplifier may not always properly sense this difference in voltage. Increasing the length of a channel in a sense amplifier may improve the sensing reliability, however, increasing the length in the channel leads to slower amplifier performance.